Jaguar, a British Car Brand, Has Stopped Selling New Cars in the UK

 

They're shooting themselves in the foot by going upmarket and only selling EVs. A friend of mine who works for the company showed me a picture of the upcoming GT, codenamed X900. Unfortunately, it was hideous. They didn't even have anything at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. JLR had a tent (pictured below) with everything in it, but the Jaguar side of the tent was a little cinema room with a minute-long video about how they will make a "copy of nothing" on a continuous loop. The current lineup is utterly brilliant - great looking cars with excellent driving dynamics and now have great interiors, but they have always had that old person, unreliable stigma that they couldn't shake. They tried with the heavy marketing in the US, and by offering a class-leading 5-year, 60k-mile warranty in the US and including all maintenance. It didn't work. At their peak in 2017 they sold just under 40k units in the US, compared to BMW, which sold 360k units.

They will continue to produce the F-Pace, their only profitable vehicle through 2025 in some markets, including the US. They can do this, because the F-Pace is made at the Solihull plant, whereas the rest of the lineup was made across town in the Castle Bromwich plant, and also by Magna-Steyr in Austria.

Its a shame that this is happening, because they currently make excellent vehicles and have a great heritage to back them up.

 

They nearly had me for an F-Pace at one point but the Jaguar pricing was honestly just a little too high for my middle-class budget. The E-Pace was more in my wheelhouse but that model would be too small for a lot of Americans who shop for 'family' SUVs.. Even though the F-Pace sold fairly well from what I understand I'm sure many of those who could afford the F-Pace most likely went in other directions, the Germans e.g. BMW / Audi / Mercedes introduced more affordable options over the years for their entry-level SUVs like the X1 / Q3 / GLB to get even the middle-class people into the brand with hopes to eventually upsell them down the road.

Another thing of note IMO is the Jaguar brand was essentially joined at the hip with Land Rover which already had the SUV focus (they invented it for that matter) and their presence on the same lots with the Jags when the Jags were historically so much more about sedans that it was almost kind of predictable in a way where this would eventually lead for Jaguar as the SUV became ubiquitous. Look at Ford today they've all but done away with sedans completely. So it's complicated what went down but I agree it's a real shame because the couple of Jags I had the pleasure to drive as loaners had the best road feel that I've experienced in any car I've ever driven.

I don't know what the answer was for Jaguar (what could have been done differently) or where it started to go wrong, but this going for the gold at the very end of the line here targeting the 150k MSRP crowd and saying goodbye forever to the middle-class doesn't seem like it has a prayer of being successful to me. Maybe at this point they figured it's the only way Jaguar could stay around at all, just as a niche boutique high-performance EV offering hanging off the side of the Rover/Defender showroom.

 

This is sad that they are going that route. Maybe they know something us consumers do not. It is a shame to let such a prestigious mark go down the drain. I would rather them sell the brand to an aggressive company who can revive it. Perhaps they tried and no one showed interest? I doubt it...

 

Checking inventory this morning at the local Mercedes dealership, plenty of brand new 2025 GLA's B's and C's to choose from at anywhere from 49-54k. Quarter mile from there the Audi dealership, new 2025 Q5 premium 53k.

Next stop, the JLR dealership inventory right up the street from me, they still have two new 2023 model year F-Paces sitting there collecting dust on the lot for 60-64k and then a 2024 E-Pace for 58k. These are mixed in with three new 2025 F-Paces for anywhere from 70-100k.

Like I said I just think the pricing had to play a significant role in the lack of Jaguar sales within the US market. Folks who are stretching their budgets to get into something with a real 'badge' for the first time in their lives are going to be far more apt to grab one of those Mercedes for 5-10k less money, right?

I personally really like Jaguar and I'd seriously consider one, but I don't know how any momentum could be built up with the masses of new car shoppers that are out there today when they start cross-shopping models looking at those MSRPs.